We already saw some entrance gates but now we’ll look at some of the village of Avebury, around the Manor House.
Once upon a time there was more, but a former Lord of the Manor determined to return the historic site to itself and removed many villagers to a new location – Avebury Trusloe. It sounds harsh, but I suspect many of the locals were pleased to leave the old houses for new, waterproof and more convenient ones. And Trusloe is very close to Avebury Church etc, so it was probably deemed to be generally a good thing.
One of the first buildings I noted in the area was the pigeon house.
It seems that the ownership of one of these buildings was a manorial right. It meant the Lord of the Manor, or one of his minions, could step out and grab a few pigeons for a pie when meat was otherwise scarce.
From the dovecote there was a view back up the drive that we had looked down before.
But back to the dovecote. Birds enter at the top. People have a door and in the door you can see the interior, with recessed bricks providing nesting and perching points for pigeons.
As the pigeon house was to provide food for the manor, then no wonder it stood close by the Manor House with its very ordinary garden gate.
One of the outbuildings houses the Alexander Keiller Museum which contains artefacts found in excavations at Avebury. Nearby is a long, thatched wall.
There are ordinary cottages still in Avebury – and the parish church which had a service just finishing.
We decided to go and look at the long barrow at West Kennet.